An experimental system that allowsthe transmission of signals from one brain to anotherallowed a researcher to move his colleague’shandat a distance.

“The Internet has so far been a means toconnect computers. Now it can also be a means toconnectbrains,”saysAndrea Stocco, member of the research team atthe University of Washington.

The study is the first to showa non-invasive method for connecting the brains of two people.It comes a few months after the announcement of Harvard researchers about the connection between the brain of a human and an animal.

The first successfulexperiment ofthe kind was made earlier in rats and was presented last February. The ultimate goal of the experiments is to “transfer knowledge directly from one brain to another,”says Dr. Stocco now. However, the latest research concerns the transmission of much simpler signals.

The researcherRajesh Rao, Dr. Stocco’s associate, was sitting in his laboratory wearing an electroencephalographic cap, which was recording the electrical activity in specific brain areas. The EEG signals were transmitted via Skype in the laboratory of Dr. Stocco on the other side of the campus. He did not see or listen to his colleague but was wearingatranscranial magnetic stimulation (orTMS) device, which was placed over his motor cortex, the brain area that coordinates the movements of the limbs.

When Rao was watching a video game and thinking he was moving his index finger to press a keyboard button,the signalswere transmitted to the brain of Stocco andforced him to move his index fingerjust like he was pressing a button.

He describes the involuntary movements as“nervous tics”.

“It was both fascinating and weird to see the move I imagined being translated into a real move by a different brain,”says Rao.“It was actually a one-way information flow from my brain to his. The next step is to establish a more equal communication between the two brains”.